So I would like to get into shortwave radio

So I would like to get into shortwave radio
it's not really popular where I live and I don't have anyone to ask except you guys, and I suppose it's sufficiently Sup Forums.
I'm not really interested in broadcasting or emergency bands, just want to listen to shortwave from across the world and numbers stations and static. Local market seems to be saturated with baofeng radios and emergency bands scanners at reasonable prices but I don't know if those are even appropriate for what I want to do.
Apart from being able to pick up signals from across the world I want the radio to be portable so I can take it places.

nobody into HF radio?

Tecsun are a really nice intro to cheap shortwave. Google them and find some good models, find out the differences and buy one.

I got a Tecsun PL-660 to listen to reviewbrah's radio show, it's a good portable radio and picks up some good stuff. Sometimes listen to commie radio at night and some crazy preachers too.

will look this up, thanks

I see I have TECSUN PL310ET readily available, but not much more
would that suffice?

Grundig makes excellent hardware, I think Sony still makes some decent consumer class shortwave radios as well. If you get really serious then you'd be looking at Kenwood, Yaesu, Icom, and some other makers of pro-class receivers - yes you can get transceivers but you said you're only interested in monitoring so, that's the option.

It's entirely possible, with a laptop nowadays, to do more and be more capable using an SDR device like SDRplay (my recommendation) or Airspy (not really that great because it doesn't really cover the HF bands, requires the Spyverter add-on device) and make use of software like SDR-Radio/Console and do a fuckton more interesting things including recording entire huge wide swaths of frequency bands in one swoop.

Imagine visually seeing a 10-20 MHz wide window of comms, and being able to record ALL of it then going back later and listening to it as thought it was real-time.

SDR is the future, so don't bother with standalone devices anymore, it's nice to have them in a prepper situation but a laptop + SDR hardware = vastly more potential.

for now I'm looking to buy some entry level device and see if I'd like it
I'll keep this in mind for later, thanks

SW radio is dead.

Are you an HAM operator? I just past my General License exam

This is ham review.

no, just wanting to receive
ham as a hobby is pretty much non existent where I live as far as I know because the bands are strictly regulated and you have to register and such and it doesn't help that since the local market is so small all the equipment is sold for more than it should be and if you do ham without a license cops come after you

how does one listen to reviewbrah on SW radio?

Oh shoot I'm taking my test next week. I seem to keep getting below passing on the practice tests online. Do you have any tips?

no

just tune in

are you bald?

no, why? does it affect reception?

How about SDR, OP? SDRPlay RSP1A for example

I just go to youtube and type "vorw" into the search thing

Check out and the FAQ posted there.

you need a antenna on the roof

Even just running a wire across the yard would be a decent improvement.

Take more online tests. Review the questions you missed, try to memorize the correct answers.
If you don't pass, you study as above until the next test. OR you could find a Ham Cram session that ends with the test being administered. The last is the most successful, with a 90% pass rate.

I am--General. Wife--tech.

how anonymous is shortwave or ham radio in general? at first glance it seems pretty ideal, with no requirement for an identifier etc. but i guess it'd be pretty trivial to track down where a particular broadcast came from, with trilateration/triangulation, right?
i just want a cozy little system off the internet to talk to people.

Your rec of SDRplay is spot-on. Fantastic. I made a dipole from speaker wire. Stuck it on the hi-Z antenna section. Amazing. All the HF bands are there. All the modes. You can even route the output to FLdigi and rip RTTY and other digital modes right out of the air. Endless fun. Going to put up a tactical dipole and a 2M/70cm antenna. Running an old Yaesu rig at low power on HF. 80m and 20m.

HAM is not anonymous at all. If you try to do anything anonymously, HAMs will hunt you down and report you to the FCC because they're bootlickers.

Check the FAQ mentioned earlier. It describes what systems are used to track down radio emitters.

Everything you communicate over landline, mobile phone, fax, email and more is being recorded, analysed and archived. You have to be naive to think it is any different with radio.

sangean ats 909

PL-660 supports SSB giving you access to amateour communications